one is a challenge to the constitution of the defense of marriage act. as i'm sure many of you know, defense of marriage act passed in 1996 says that the federal government will not recognize same-sex marriage under any circumstances, even if they're legal in the state would take place. so this case out of massachusetts, very compelling case, where two women were married. they are just as married as any heterosexual couple in massachusetts to one of them die, as i'm sure you under the internal revenue code, money passes tax-free from one spouse to the other, but because the irs can't recognize same-sex marriage in massachusetts, the surviving spouse have to pay taxes on that money, a considerable amount. so it was a very straight up challenge to that law. the other case that is heading to the supreme court is the proposition a case out of california, and that is much more a challenge to whether the protection clause allows the expansion of same-sex marriage. it is very much like loving persons virginia in can the state's ban this? are the states allowed